Music and Memories

Hello all you wonderful people! I hope you had a good week last week! Let’s get into this post, shall we?

Last week while I was working I heard a few songs from the playlist that goes through my store daily. Usually I don’t even hear it—I drown it out because it’s the same songs over and over and over on loop (literally). However, there was one song that stuck with me and brought memories into the forefront of my brain.

The song: She’s On Fire by Train

Why did this stick with me? Why has it been playing in my head non-stop since? Well, for one, I love Train and have since they released their Drops of Jupiter album. Also, it brought a memory (or memories) that happened when I was younger: Playing Mario Tennis on my Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance.

When I was younger and my mom had to go to the store to buy groceries, or to go look at books, or whatever it was, she usually had Drops of Jupiter or My Private Nation playing in her car. Now, that may just seem like a normal thing, but I always played Mario Tennis when Train was going through those speakers. From starting out at that school, to playing through each portion of said camp, to the final three matches you had to play (I only remember the colors of the teams at the end—Green, Yellow, and Blue) to complete the game.

So, when I heard She’s On Fire playing through my store I started to smile while walking through the aisles taking inventory of what we needed, stocking the empty areas, and helping customers. I got a few odd looks because I’ll bet I looked pretty derpy mouthing the lyrics, but I was so happy hearing that song and thinking of my mom and the rides we would take.

The night rides we’d take to different areas of Michigan and different states, the yearly trip we used to take to Florida (which was anywhere between nineteen and twenty-five hours from Michigan to the middle of Florida depending on traffic and stops we needed), and just playing that game over and over, trying to get each created player (who was actually named Alex without changing his name!—that’s me!!! WHOA!!) to a higher skill level in the stupid training area.

I just couldn’t believe I had a single song bring back so many amazing memories connected to a handheld game from seventeen-eighteen years ago. The entire thing made me so happy, and really I wish I was still able to play that game, but sadly I can not.

Anyway, that’s it for this post. I just thought it was super amazing that a song could do that and remembering the trips with my mom (specifically) make She’s On Fire one of the most special songs I can hear to this day.